Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz
Bernadette Maryann Rostenkowski-Wolowitz '''is a former waitress at the Cheesecake Factory and has earned her Ph.D in microbiology and a lucrative job at a pharmaceutical company. She is the love interest, later wife of Howard Wolowitz from the TV show, "The Big Bang Theory". She is played by Melissa Rauch. Character History Bernadette, like Howard, is on bad terms with her mother, whose over-protectiveness caused issues for her when she was growing up. Bernadette's height is a sensitive topic for her, similar to Howard and Leonard, as well as she believes her small stature is linked to her mother smoking cigarettes while she was pregnant with her. In her teens she entered beauty pageants including one for Miss California Quiznos of 1999. Bernadette went to Catholic school, then to into college to study microbiology and got a job at the Cheesecake Factory to pay her tuition, where she met Penny. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology in "The Roommate Transmogrification" and subsequently accepted a job with a big pharmaceutical company called Zangen in which she earned a lot more money. Physical Appearance Bernadette is almost 5' (1.52 m), with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her wardrobe mainly consists of red-frame glasses, petite cardigans, knee-length floral skirts, nylons and black flats. She also wears necklaces, most notably a cross as she was raised in a Catholic family. Her hairstyle is wavy with bangs and is usually untied, though occasionally is worn in a low side ponytail or with a headband. Bernadette is very cute and almost pretty as Penny. Family Not much is known about Bernadette's family. Howard joked that her parents' names were Adolf and Eva and her brother's name was Ricky even though he hadn't met him yet. Her surname indicates she has Polish descent, which makes sense as she claims her family is Catholic, Poland's most common religion. Howard's mother refers to her as "that little Catholic girl". This fact is further reinforced by Howard's mother refers to her as "little Polish girl" when Howard was on ISS. Bernadette's mother used to make Bernadette crazy like Howard's mother does to Howard. She used to run an illegal daycare in the basement, which was part of the reason that Bernadette has a dislike of children. She used to smoke cigarettes when she was pregnant with Bernadette, which is a reason, according to Bernadette, as to why she is short. She wouldn't let Bernadette ride a bike because she was worried she would hit a bump and lose her virginity (which she eventually lost in a Toyota Camry). When Bernadette first appeared, her mother was still picking out her clothes daily. Bernadette's father Mike Rostenkowski is a retired police officer and she was always worried for his safety. According to Bernadette, he is a rude person and often bullies others. In "The Vacation Solution", Bernadette said that her father was retired, but still carried his gun as a fashion statement. She also gave Howard a list of topics to avoid when talking to him, implying that he is far-right wing. This list included: * Jimmy Carter * Gardeners * Foreign people * Homosexuals * Sean Penn * Vatican II * Gun Control * Organic food * designated hitter rule * Recycling * Howard being Jewish She also says that if he yells, it is a good sign, but if he is quiet, Howard should quickly back away, but in zig-zags. Mike Rostenkowski appeared in the last two episodes of Season 5 and in the "The Fish Guts Displacement", in which he appears to have befriended Howard. Her father describes her as four feet tall though she is four foot eleven inches. Bernadette has five sisters and brothers, as revealed in "The Scavenger Vortex" (S7E03), one of them is named Joey. She often took care of her younger siblings as a child, as Mrs. Rostenkowski worked full time, which was also another reason she doesn't like little kids ("The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", S5E12) and makes her competitive for she had to fight for everything with them ("The Scavenger Vortex"). She had a grandmother who died during Christmas 2009 ("The Maternal Congruence", S3E11). Her grandmother had a parrot, and once she lost her marbles, treated the remote control as if it were her pet parrot ("The Ornithophobia Diffusion", S5E09), Members * '''Father: Mike Rostenkowski * Mother: Mrs. Rostenkowski * Brother: Joey Rostenkowski * Siblings: Four Other Unnamed Siblings * Husband: Howard Wolowitz * Father-in-law: Mr. Wolowitz * Mother-in-law: Mrs. Wolowitz * Half-Brother-in-law: Josh Wolowitz Relationships Howard Bernadette has been with Howard since the episode "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary". Bernadette was introduced to Howard by Penny because of a pact Leonard made with Howard. After that, Bernadette dated Howard for a few more episodes until Howard announced that they had broken up "a few weeks ago" in "The Plimpton Stimulation". In "The Hot Troll Deviation", Howard revealed the reason they broke up and after he apologized they started dating again. In "The Herb Garden Germination", Howard proposed to Bernadette and she accepted; however, Bernadette's relationship with Howard, though loving and generally accommodating, is often strained due to Howard still living with his mother and his sensitivity. The tension in their relationship further worsens when Bernadette starts to yell like Howard's mother and gets a Ph.D, further rubbing in the fact he does not have one. One thing he did to get her back was play "Bernadette" on The Cheesecake Factory piano, which creeped out Penny. However, Bernadette thought it was very romantic. During "The Stag Convergence", Bernadette was telling Penny about a website set up by Howard with facts about their family histories, she said that at one time in Poland both their families were neighbors and Penny said "Aww, that's cool." In reply, Amy whispered to Penny, "No, it's not. I will explain it to you later." (Amy is referring to the Holocaust). Later in the same episode, Bernadette got mad with Howard after hearing about some of his previous creepy sexual exploits which Raj mentioned during his toast at Howard's bachelor party. She tells Penny that she thought he was a sweet little guy who lived with his mother and questioned how she could now marry a man that she didn't really know. Howard apologizes and tells her that all that was past and that she has made him a better man. After this apology, Bernadette forgives him. In "The Launch Acceleration", Howard is relieved when his space flight is canceled. Then NASA reschedules it to before the wedding. Bernadette tells him to go and that the wedding can take place after he returns because she won't stand between him as his dream of traveling to space, the final frontier. In "The Countdown Reflection", Howard gives her a necklace with a star pendant. After he puts it on her, he tells her that she must briefly return it to him so that he can take into space with him. In this way, Bernadette will have a star that was in space after which he says, "Take that every guy who ever bought you anything!" Just before Howard left for Russia, he and Bernadette get married. They are unable to have a ceremony at the City Hall because there are limited spots available before he is to go to space and naturally, the office does not believe his reason for being unable to delay the wedding. Their friends, however, all get ordained as ministers and married them instead. During "The Date Night Variable", Bernie insists that Howard tells his mother that they are moving out of her house, though Howard told his mother that they were reconsidering the move. Howard returns from space in "The Re-Entry Minimization" and Bernadette meets him at the airport and has him all to herself, but falls asleep due to her allergy medication. In "The Habitation Configuration", Bernadette gets Howard to move his stuff out of his old room. Even though he does do it, she doesn't want her husband to break his mother's heart and they go back to spend the night there. In "The Bakersfield Expedition", she develops an interest in comic books and Thor's hammer. In "The Deception Verification", Bernadette must deals with the effects of her mother-in-law's estrogen cream after Howard absorbs at lot applying to his mother's back. He becomes very moody, cranky and effeminate. In "The Workplace Proximity", after Amy starts working at Caltech, Howard mentions that he wouldn't want to be working with Bernadette all day long. Sheldon repeats his comments in front of Bernadette who confronts Howard and then tells him not to come home after he lies about it. Later they apologize to each other. Howard promised to turn over a new leaf and make her his priority, after he finished the new Batman game with Raj making Bernadette mad again. In "The Romance Resonance", Howard writes the song "If I didn't have you" to be accompanied by his friends for the anniversary of their first date. Bernadette misses the date since she has to go into quarantine so Howard brings his piano to the hospital and everyone sings it to her. She finds the song amazing. In "The Cooper Extraction", Amy points out to the gang that most of them would not know each other if Sheldon had not been part of their lives. Bernadette feels that if she had seen Howard at The Cheesecake Factory, she would have found him cute, but would have been turned off by Raj and Howard's close interaction: Raj was spoon feeding him. In "The Septum Deviation", Raj learns that his parents are getting divorce lawyers. It seems over the years they did not communicate and let a lot of little things boil over until they hated each other. Bernadette worries about their marriage and Howard is reluctant to describe what bothers him about Bernadette. Howard has been through couple's therapy (with Raj) and one trick is to describe what one loves about the other. It starts out fine, but then gets petty as they sarcastically tell each other what bothers in pseudo-supportive terms. Howard started calling her Bernie after hearing it from her ex-boyfriend, the very tall, Glenn. Category:Female Love Interest Category:Married Category:Genius Love Interest Category:Love at First Sight Category:Comical Love Interest Category:Live-Action Love Interests Category:TV Love Interests Category:Protagonist's Love Interest